deadsquid.com feeds

I read a lot of web feeds. Hundreds of feeds bring me thousands of stories on all manner of topics every day — Mozilla stuff, food and cooking, photography, gaming, news, technology, literature, writing, politics, business, innovation, design, etc. Feeds are how I get almost all of my news, whether it be local, national, or international. It’s how I view my friends’ blogs and my Flickr contacts’ photo streams. Feeds keep me up to date on most forums and newsgroups I follow, and they’re the first place I turn when I want to waste some time catching up on my entertainment news or to see what’s up at the renovation/interior design blogs I read. Feeds are, by and large, how I access the vast majority of the Web content I consume.

Until a few days ago I have been using the Vienna feed reader for Mac OS X. It’s a pretty decent workhorse of a reader with a standard email-client-like user interface, the ability to group feeds into folders and subfolders (and sub-subfolders), and all that. It has always frustrated me, however, that my feedreader — through which I consume the majority of my Web content — wasn’t part of Firefox. In fact, I could go so far as to say that Vienna was on close to equal footing to Firefox as my core tool for accessing the Web. This has always struck me as somewhat ridiculous, so I’ve played with all sorts of tools for reading feeds via Firefox, whether they be add-ons or web-applications or what have you. None have ever been compelling enough to switch me away from Vienna until now.

I’ve discovered Feedly, you see, an incredibly slick Firefox 3 add-on that’s been in development for quite some time.

While I’ve only been using Feedly for just over a week now, it has already completely streamlined how I manage, view, and deal with my feeds. Brilliantly, Feedly leverages the existing Google Reader web application as its back end, and throws in added functionality, other service integration points, and a significantly improved UI for good measure. It installs as quickly and easily as any Firefox add-on, displays your feeds in their own tab, and essentially integrates your entire feed reading experience right into your Firefox. Feedly is almost exactly the sort of tool I was hoping to find, and while it does still have a few bugs and rough edges, it’s by far the best feed reader I’ve used to date.

Check it out: Feedly at Mozilla Add-ons.

Over the past few days I’ve been messing around with my weblog, adding bits and pieces here and there, moving things around, taking bits out. It’s been fun, and eventually I’d like to hack a three-column layout, but I’m done messing with it for now.

While working on it I discovered the interesting new world of Wordpress widgets. These are essentially just another type of plugin that adds functionality to your blog, usually by way of pulling in data from somewhere else and displaying it in the sidebar or footer or what-have-you. I played around with a bunch, and these are the ones I’m hanging on to (in no particular order):

Twitter Tools - One of several widgets that displays your Twitter messages in the sidebar. I like Twitter a lot (although I’m not really sure why), so this is a pretty obvious one for me.

Flickr RSS - Again, there are multiple widgets that will pull your Flickr feed into your blog, and this is one of them. I like this one mostly because it worked and I was able to customize it to do what I wanted without having to get too fancy.

Delicious cached++ - Lists your most recent delicious.com shared bookmarks. I figure I’ll use this as a way to highlight interesting bits and pieces I find around the Web. I used to do a daily autopost of recent links and stuff, but I decided that those sorts of things generally annoy me. This’ll do.

Turns out the delicious plugin I was using? Totally, totally broken. I’m going to have to dig another one up. Boo.

Now Reading - I’m still trying to figure out how to customize this one because the default state tends to take up an awful lot of room (mostly because I’m inevitably currently reading more than one book (usually 3-4)). I’ve banished it down to the bottom of the sidebar for now.

Disqus comment system - This is an interesting new service that basically provides third-party support for comments on your blog that also lets you track your own comments and discussions on other websites (that use Disqus, of course). It’s…interesting. Needs more users, I think. If it ever hits critical mass, it could be fantastic.

Sociable - By far the best utility I found for adding social bookmarking links to posts and web feeds. It installs easily, is a snap to configure, and just works. Exactly what I wanted in a nice neat package. Great plugin.

Everything else you see over there on the right is put together with default Wordpress widgets that are included when you first install the blog software. I’ve got the about:mozilla web feed over there because that’s the other blog I work on the most. My Friends list, while incomplete, was re-added because someone else relied on it (hi Mom! :) ). Recent comments is currently under evaluation — I’m not sure it’s valuable enough to warrant that sort of real-estate. It probably doesn’t. We’ll see.

“Evangelism is making people believe in your dream as much as you do.” - Guy Kawasaki.

I like that definition a lot.

The Food tasting meme

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you.ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again)
4. Optional extra: Post a comment http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

To make the filling out of this form and generating the HTML for it a bit easier, reddywhp has played around with some PHP. Go to http://reddywhip.org/lj/foods/ and fill it out there. After filling it out, you will be given the code to copy and paste into your blog.

Livejournal users, remember to use your LJ-Cuts!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frog’s Legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

about:mozilla is a blog and weekly newsletter that focuses on the major news items related to the Mozilla Project. These news items can really be about any aspect of the Project, ranging from development news and schedules through marketing and community events. For an idea of what sort of news we cover, just check out the blog or the past issues.

We’re looking for help. Do you follow or are you involved in a particular part of the Mozilla Project? Do you think there’s news and information about that part of the Project that deserves to be included in the about:mozilla blog and newsletter? If so, please send a note to about-mozilla at mozilla.com. Ideally you will include a snappy headline, a short version of the story you’re submitting (a few sentences is sufficient, really — the newsletter needs to be short and to the point), and at least one link where readers can get more information.

I stopped buying pre-made salad dressings a long, long time ago because a) they’d get used once then end up rotting in the back of the fridge because they’re not really very good, b) it’s ridiculously easy to make your own from scratch, and c) making your own is about 1000x cheaper than buying pre-made.

I’ve established a base template for vinaigrette dressings which has held up pretty well through on-going tests. It is:

• 1/2 c oil (olive oil, generally)
• 1/3 c vinegar/sour (vinegar(s) + citrus juices, etc.)
• 1 finely minced clove of garlic (not optional, unless you really hate garlic (weirdo))
• 1 finely minced small shallot (not really optional, but you can substitute a couple of tablespoons of red onion if you must)
• 1/2 tsp sweet (sugar, honey, maple syrup, whatever)
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• Pinch salt to taste

Put it all in a mason jar, make sure the lid is nice and tight, then shake like hell. A lot. Make it about an hour or so before you need it if you can, but that’s optional. Shake it again later. Don’t bother making enough for leftovers — it doesn’t store well and making it fresh is easy and awesome.

Now, I am a crazy vinegar-loving person, so you may want to ratchet the vinegar/sour back a bit. Starting with this basic template (which takes about 10 mins to make once you master the shallot/garlic mincing process) you can add whatever extras you want — fresh chopped herbs, grated cheeses, mustards, chopped capers, minced citrus zest, etc. Whatever.

The most recent was: olive oil, white wine vinegar, and lime zest (quite a lot…it was really tasty). Tonight’s is: olive oil, white wine vinegar, and about 1/3c finely grated parmasean cheese. Yum.

Update: If you’re going to use balsamic vinegar, don’t do the whole 1/3-1/2c with it. Cut that with something else. More than a few tablespoons of balsamic is a) a waste of balsamic, and b) going to be profoundly overpowering. Use the medium-good stuff, not the super-good stuff. Save the good stuff for drizzling over strawberries.

Our garden has some daisies in it. Many, in fact.

iPhone pic of the sky while I was out walking and rocking to some Matt Good earlier. No rain today for the first time in, literally, weeks.

As far as I can tell, from my three-or-four day experiment, Feedburner is just totally broken. At very least, the WP plugin doesn’t work, or something. Alas. The mystery of my subscriber numbers and “reach” shall remain just that. Should be back to normal feeds now, please let me know if anything is broken (if you can read this, but if you read via feeds you probably won’t see this if it’s busted). Ah teknology.

Cool article over on Ars Technica: Prof tweets about course, ends up moving whole class online.

So, there’s a Wordpress app for the iPhone which, after giving me a hard time with my password, seems to be working quite well. Still not used to the iPhone keyboard - I’m still one-fimger typing here - but it’s better than nothing I suppose. I wonder if I can insert a picture..

Well let’s post this and see.

My entire photoprocessing workflow is now wholly contained in Lightroom 2 because of Jeffrey Friedl’s Export to Flickr plugin. And Lightroom does crazy smart things like stashes images in a temp directory for uploading then automatically deletes the images afterwards so you’re not gumming up your harddrive with unnecessary images that you’ll probably never use again.

I realized recently that I have absolutely no idea how many people read this blog. I’m curious, however, so I’m going to try out Feedburner for a while, just to see if it tells me anything useful or interesting. Ok. If you have any problems with my feeds for whatever reason, please let me know. I don’t want to break anything.

I spend a whole lot of time on my computer since it lives right in the center of both work and play for me. I also tend to spend quite a bit of time messing around with new software, always keeping an eye out for applications that will make my life easier, more productive, or just more fun. Recently I’ve started using a bunch of new stuff that’s all pretty good.

TweetDeck

At first I didn’t like TweetDeck at all, but they seem to be fixing the bugs and working to make it feel a little less alien. The first version I tried didn’t even have a proper titlebar, so it just felt completely wrong. It’s still pretty odd and takes some getting used to, but it is by far the best Twitter client I’ve tried yet.

Together

Together is sort of a digital scrapbook application. I use it to gather and track stories to be included in the about:mozilla weblog and newsletter, for the most part, but also use it to hang on to files and webpages I want to read later, compile sources for another project I’m working on, and so forth. It’s a nice, handy, unobtrusive utility that’s easy to use and works quite well.

MarsEdit 2

A growing part of my job involves writing posts for a number of weblogs. MarsEdit is a very straightforward blogging tool that lets me manage posts for multiple blogs in a simple UI that never gets in my way. It has all the features I need and nothing extraneous or distracting. It’s hard to ask for more in writing tool you use every day.

Adobe Lightroom 2

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with the original Lightroom, so I’m not really sure what’s new or changed in LR2, but I’ve been playing with it for a few days and really like it. Lightroom simplifies and streamlines the work that goes into processing digital photos from RAW into a final version for web or print. It doesn’t do everything Photoshop does, of course, but for me it covers about 95% of anything I want to do to my images before publishing or printing. I’m still just learning how to use the software, but I can already process pictures 3-4x faster than I could in Photoshop, and I expect that will only get better as I become more familiar with the software and some of it’s automation features.

The pricetag on Lightroom 2 is a wince-inducing $300 USD, but I think it’s worth it, and I’ll be buying this one as soon as my 30 day demo is up. If you’d like to see some of the pictures I’ve processed with it, I have a set up on Flickr.

Things

Things is basically a fancified To-Do List manager. It has the features you need if you want to go all GTD, but also lets you use a more simple system if you want. I use a semi-GTD system in that I have a list of projects in Things, and have those projects broken down into the various actions needed to get them to completion. For those projects that repeat (ie: the about:mozilla newsletter), I have a set of scheduled tasks I have to do every week or month or whatever.

Each morning I go through the full list, flag the items I want to get done today (there’s a handy “Today” star, which I think most GTD systems lack but I can’t live without) and then I just go ahead and do those things. Ta dah.

There’s also a Things for the iPhone/iPod Touch which I will eventually buy when it will sync with my desktop Things. Until then, it’s really not useful to me since there’s no way I’m going to manually manage two lists. They’re working on it, it’s just not ready yet.

Is there other Mac software out there you think I’d like? Leave a note in the comments.

One thing I am hearing consistently in posts about the Summit is that there just wasn’t enough time to meet everyone we wanted to meet. This holds true for me, but even if the conference had gone for another three days (and however many additional disasters that would have entailed), there still wouldn’t have been enough time.

This is the painful dichotomy of working with a distributed community, I guess. The global nature of our community means that we get to work with some of the best and brightest people working on the Web anywhere in the world. The global nature of our community, however, also means that we very rarely have an opportunity to meet face-to-face and talk about things in person. When we do, it’s incredible — this Summit was just mind-blowing in that it gave so many of us a chance to meet people we’ve been working with remotely for years. Online collaboration is great, of course, and is an astonishingly powerful tool that allows us to do what we do, but there’s something deeper you get from in-person meetings. Finally seeing the faces and hearing the voices of long-time friends is…something. I’m not sure how even to describe it. But it’s valuable. Immeasurably so.

I’m already looking forward to the next Summit, whenever and wherever it ends up being. I also think I will try to travel more (if I can) — more conferences, more visits, more chances to meet other Mozillians face-to-face and to talk about things. I have so many ideas swimming around my head from just three days of chatting with folks — making it a regular thing can only be even more generative, creative, and energizing.

Getting to Whistler was a 13 hour trek even without any delays or mishaps. The trip home was a bit more adventuresome (and, honestly, a hell of a lot more fun). The rockslide on Route 99 between Whistler and Vancouver really screwed things up.

Friday

Pictures from Friday’s adventures are over on Flickr: Escaping Whistler.

• 7:30a Pacific - Wake up, shower, pack.
• 8:30a - Hotel restaurant for a buffet breakfast. I’ve long since learned that traveling is a lot more pleasant if you have a full stomach. Schlepping luggage through airports does actually require calories.
• 9:30a - Meet fellow hooligans in hotel lobby. Floatplane dispatcher is contacted because weather is looking…questionable. He says, “Yeah, so the weather is looking questionable, but we’ll try.” Taxis are called.
• 9:45a - Our taxis arrive and promptly get poached by other hotel guests (wtf?). More taxis are called. We pile in.
• 10:00a or so - Get to floatplane dock at Green Lake. The weather is looking increasingly iffy. We wait. We wait some more.
• 10:30a or so - It begins to rain. More phonecalls. Travel plans are looking dire.
• 11:00a or so - Whistler Air guy says “I have a plane leaving at 1:00p, but it’s in Squamish. You want to take that?” We confer. We agree to do that if first floatplane can’t make it.
• 11:15a or so (standing on a dock in the rain, your sense of time sort of goes weird) - Floatplane guy calls back. Pilot tried to make it in to Green Lake but waved off due to weather. The floatplane is not coming. Travel plans are looking dire, indeed. We book and pay for Whistler Air flights, then continue standing around in the rain on the dock at Green Lake waiting for a bus to Squamish at noon. Air Canada is called many, many times. Travel arrangements are rescheduled since we’re now missing all our original flights. I rearrange my flight to be for Saturday since there’s no possible way to make the final connection from Toronto to Moncton at this point.
• 12:00p - Whistler Air-provided shuttle bus to Squamish arrives. Huzzah. We pile in with our luggage and sundries and several other passengers.
• 12:45p - We arrive in Squamish. Whistler Air guy there says, “Erm, planes are late,” (or something to that effect) “You have an hour to kill.” Already-rearranged travel plans for many are already beginning to look dire-ish. Awesome bus driver guy says, “I’ll take you all back into town to use the facilities and get lunch.” There is great rejoicing.
• 1:15p - Back on bus heading back to the Greater Squamish Floatplane Airport after using facilities and wolfing down Wendy burgers, coffees, and donuts.
• 1:45p or so - Group splits up. We can’t all fit on one plane. Big plane is ready to take folks who have earlier flights to catch today or who otherwise just want to get the hell to Vancouver. Mconnor, Lucy, Robcee and I valiantly stay behind.
• 2:15p or so - Small plane arrives but fills up with a family of 6. No big deal, we have time to spare.
• 2:45p or so - Finally get a plane. Pile on in, get the shortest and most to the point airplane security briefing ever, which is roughly: “If you need to open the door, pull the handle towards you then up. Buckle up.” Vroom. Flight is scheduled to last a whole 12 mins, but possibly slightly longer since they have to route around blasting (at the rockslide site). Many pictures are taken. Best flight ever. I seriously want a floatplane.
• 3:15p or so - We arrive in downtown Vancouver at the floatplane dock. I’m giddy and take a million pictures of floatplanes because it turns out they’re frakking awesome.
• 3:45p or so - Standing on a corner in Vancouver with Mconnor, Lucy, and Robcee trying to find cabs. Mconnor and Lucy get the first. Robcee and I get the second and head to the Radisson near YVR since both of our flights are on Saturday.
• 7:30p or so - Dinner is obtained (and is surprisingly awesome). Darkness falls. Time passes. Two episodes of Weeds are watched. Exhaustion sets in.
• 11:30p - Sleep.

Saturday

• 8:00a Pacific - Wake up, shower, pack. Use the internet while it’s available.
• 9:45a - Head downstairs for a buffet breakfast. See above re: traveling on a full stomach.
• 10:15a - Check out. Get on shuttle to airport.
• 10:45a - I get off shuttle at Domestic terminal. Robcee heads on to International.
• 11:00a - Find myself at the end of a ridiculously long line of people checking in. I’m checked in but still have to print boarding passes and check luggage. Apparently Saturday is Cruise Day at YVR. There are eighty billion people.
• 11:30a or so - Checked luggage, have boarding passes. Flight is scheduled for 1:45p so I make my leisurely way to my gate.
• 12:00p - At gate, clinging to the outer fringes of the free wifi at YVR. Tired, but content.
• 12:35p - Notice sign at my gate now says “Departure: 13:45. DELAYED: 15:45″. No longer content. 2 hour delay means I miss the last connection from Toronto to Moncton. Despair sets in. I suddenly stop having fun.
• 12:50p - Gate agents are dealing with people who are going to miss their connections as best they can. Some non-connection-requiring passengers are being…jerks. I finally get to speak to an agent who informs me that an earlier flight has available seats. He prints me a boarding pass and says, “Um, you better hustle.” It’s already boarding and is a fair hike away. I hustle.
• 1:00p or so - I arrive at the gate and am immediately able to board. Huzzah. Better still, I have seat 12H (bulkhead row, tons of legroom). Better still, 12K (window seat) is empty. When the doors close I shift over. Window seat, bulkhead row. I am no longer despairing.
• 8:20p Eastern time - Land at YYZ. Connection doesn’t board for an hour so I take the time to get dinner (chicken ceasar salad + a smirnoff ice). Pay $6 for an hour’s worth of wifi so I can update folks on my whereabouts. It is at this precise moment that I realize I may actually need a cell phone. May have to look into blackberries again.
• 9:00p - At gate using up the last of my wifi hour downloading free stuff on my iPod from the Apps Store. Turns out free stuff mostly sucks except the Sodoku.
• 9:20p - Board. End up in wrong seat. Move to correct seat. No one’s beside me, yay. Attendant asks me if I would be so kind as to move to the Exit row since there are currently kids in it. I oblige and get extra leg room again. Pwn.
• 12:50a Atlantic - Land at YQM.
• 1:00a - Luggage obtained.
• 1:10a - In cab on way home. Chat with driver about the Eagles concert (which was tonight), the upcoming Elton John concert, and the Casino. Find out his niece is in her fourth year at Acadia and the names of a few of the other folks who live on our street. Further chat about kids these days and whatnot. I’m definitely back in the Maritimes.
• 1:30a or so - Home. Finally.

• Total door-to-door (Whistler-Moncton) travel time: 40 hours.
• Vehicles involved: Taxi, Bus, Floatplane, Taxi, Shuttle, Airplane, Airplane, Taxi.
• Meals eaten: Breakfast (Whistler), Lunch (Squamish), Dinner (Vancouver), Breakfast (Vancouver), Dinner (Toronto), journey-ending beverage (Moncton).
• Cats who met me at the door: Two.

Posted some shots of our post-Summit fun-but-not-wholly-successful adventure over on Flickr: Escaping Whistler. We all had to move our flights. We all almost had to move our flights twice. I’m stuck in Vancouver ’til tomorrow, but that’s ok. More (and properly processed) pics to come after I get home.

Update! Rob has posted some pictures, too.